LinkedIn and Planning Planet are two of my favourite websites and here is a list of 10 people I follow on LinkedIn or look out for their posts on Planning Planet. Reading from these people always makes my day.

Image Credit: ijmaki

While LinkedIn is the number one networking platform for professionals and businesses, Planning Planet is the number one knowledge centre for project planning and scheduling. I would highly recommend having accounts on these platforms, if you do not have one, as using them will enrich your project planning/scheduling knowledge.

Digital Apostles

Image Credit: Gerd Altmann

Darrin Kinney

You would find Darrin on LinkedIn extolling the virtues of Agile methodology and how it can help revolutionise the construction industry. He has got some pretty good ideas about how to we should be using the massive amount of project data we collect in project controls. Darrin is an advocate for the use of Jira in construction.

Mimoune Djouallah

Mimoune loves project data and you will find him on LinkedIn discussing smart ways to maximise the use of project data in project controls. If like me, you are interested in project data analytics and the advance use of business intelligence tools such as Power BI and Data Studio, then you want to follow Mimoune who also shares tips on Primavera P6 integration with these tools.

Wyn Hopkins

Though Wyn is not a project controls guy, he is still worth following as he posts regularly about how to use Excel and Power BI to manipulate data efficiently.  If you need convincing, he was the guy behind the campaign that got Microsoft to implement the new and most powerful LOOKUP function in Excel, XLOOKUP.

The References

Image Credit: Gerd Altmann

Zoltan Palffy

Zoltan is very active on Planning Planet where he is the go to person on Primavera P6 as he creates time to answer all questions on the Primavera P6 forum. Even when others have answered questions on the P6 forum, you still need Zoltan to confirm their answers. He is that good. He can also be found on LinkedIn helping out as always.

Tom Boyle

Tom is another strong member of the Planning Planet who makes the community tick and most of the time can be found in the Microsoft Project forum answering questions. He also renowned for pointing out the limitations of Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project in critical path calculations.

Pat Weaver

Pat is very active on both Planning Planet and LinkedIn, he is very much "Mr Facts". His blog posts on Planning Planet are well researched and very insightful. If you ever want to know things like why Primavera P6 uses the file extension ".xer" or other historic facts about planning and scheduling then Pat has got you covered. His write-ups also cover project planning/scheduling principles, concepts and certifications.

Santosh Bhat

Santosh is also very active on LinkedIn and Planning Planet. His forte are Linear Project Scheduling and Schedule Risk Analysis and can be found answering questions on them or recommending good practices. Santosh also chips with solutions on Primavera P6 problems from time to time.

Mike Testro

If you are interested in delay analysis then you definitely want to hear what Mike has to say. He blogs often on LinkedIn, championing the use of "common sense" in delay analysis. A strong advocate of the use of only FS relationships in a schedule, you want to follow Mike to learn about the errors he looks for in schedule and how to avoid them. Mike is a proponent of Asta Powerproject as scheduling tool.

The Critics

Image Credit: Gerd Altmann

Rafael Davila

Rafael is very visible on Planning Planet where he comments on almost all forum topics or blog posts. He is an apostle of good planning and scheduling practice hence he is not afraid to highlight what he thinks is wrong. He might not be everyone's cup of tea but he is known for providing very detailed and well researched analysis.

Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo

Dr Paul is a strong advocate of the Guild of Project Controls (GPC) and is very active on both Planning Planet and LinkedIn. You might find him on LinkedIn calling out posts that he believes push forward bad planning and scheduling practices. Though he is opinionated, I would recommend following him as you stand to gain another perspective on planning and scheduling issues.

Last Word

Do you have other names in the project planning and scheduling world you would recommend I follow?    This post was previously published on Planners' Place Blog.